Khalid Mishaal, the head of the Hamas political bureau, stated Friday that there can be no national reconciliation while the PA security apparatuses carry out political arrests against Hamas cadres in the occupied West Bank, denying at the same time the existence of political detainees in the Gaza Strip.In a press statement before leaving Libya, Mishaal called for holding bilateral meetings between the PA and Hamas to discuss the issue of detainees. The Hamas leader denied in another context that there was an agreement with Israel on the file of its captive soldier Gilad Shalit, charging the IOA with attempting to link the prisoner swap deal to unrelated files. He also said at the end of his visit to Libya that he is currently on a tour of a number of Arab and Islamic countries in order to develop a common formula for the reconstruction in Gaza and the national reconciliation.Earlier, deputy head of the Hamas political bureau Dr. Moussa Abu Marzouk had underlined that the 18-month truce would ensure the opening of all crossings between Gaza and Israel and pointed to a positive Egyptian tendency to open the Rafah border crossing.Dr. Abu Marzouk added that the prisoner swap deal would be set apart from the truce.In the context of the truce, Dr. Salah Al-Bardawil, a senior Hamas leader, announced Friday that a ceasefire agreement was reached with Israel and would take effect as of Sunday, but he said that there was a technical problem that emerged in the last hours when Israel demanded a permanent calm agreement.Dr. Bardawil explained that the agreement provides for a mutual 18-month truce, during which Israel is bound to lift the siege, open the crossings and allow in 80 percent of goods and building materials.The Hamas leader underscored that Hamas and Egypt rejected the Israeli demand of having a permanent calm, noting that this obstacle would be eliminated in the coming hours.Bardawil also pointed out that it was agreed that Egypt would guarantee the Israeli implementation of this agreement. He added that there would be a specific mechanism to oversee the Israeli commitment to the truce whereby a tripartite committee of Egypt, the UNRWA and Hamas would be formed to supervise Israel's abidance by opening of crossings.As for the Rafah border crossing, the Hamas leader asserted that Hamas had received a promise from Cairo to reach another agreement guaranteeing the opening of this crossing as of next March.In a speech delivered during the conference of "Gaza the victory" held Friday morning in Istanbul, Osama Hamdan, the representative of Hamas in Lebanon, stressed the need to get the Palestinian cause back to its Islamic depth after the "enemies" had worked for decades on withdrawing it gradually from this depth and turning it first into an Arab issue and then a mere internal Palestinian issue.Hamdan highlighted during the conference his Movement's willingness to restore the Palestinian unity without any contradiction with its refusal to recognize the Israeli occupation and its adherence to the resistance.
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